Photographer Michael Brennan was a fixture in the tumultuous life and times of heavyweight champ Mike Tyson.
When Tyson was a teenaged tyro, training under fight guru and surrogate father Cus D’Amato in the sleepy town of Catskill, Brennan was there snapping pictures.
When Tyson demolished Trevor Berbick to become world champ, Brennan shot the fight from a ringside perch.
When Tyson started married life with actress Robin Givens, “Irish Mickey” as Tyson fondly referred to the freelance shutterbug, was there to record it for posterity.
When Tyson’s sister died suddenly, I accompanied Brennan to the New Jersey cemetary to watch the grieving fighter give her a proper burial.
When Tyson pal Rory Holloway got married at Tyson’s lavish Bernardsville, NJ, mansion, Brennan was on the scene taking photos.
When Tyson marched out of an Indiana prison after serving time for rape, Brennan was at the front gate.
You get the idea.
Brennan covered the Tyson beat, for the New York Post and many of the biggest British tabloids, like glue.
So there was Brennan outside a gym in Vegas, waiting for Tyson to come to train, when a smiling young guy and his sexy girlfriend showed up.
He was just 21 and Brennan recognized rising star Floyd Mayweather Jr. He did not recognize the model quality beauty with the boxer but now knows she is Josie Harris, the woman whose complaint to police put multimillionaire Mayweather into a Vegas jail Friday.
“Floyd came across like a good kid, quite modest and polite then,” Brennan said. “Of course I knew his boxing lineage, I knew Uncle Roger who had fought the great Mexican, Julio Cesar Chavez, and I think I covered the bout when his dad, Floyd Sr., fought the great Sugar Ray Leonard. I did not miss many of the big matches in that era.
“Mayweather seemed to be a bit gaga about being around Iron Mike like any young pugilist would be. Don’t forget, even though he was on the slide in bouts that year against Francois Botha and Orlin Norris, kids like Floyd still revered him, still regarded him as ‘the baddest man on the planet.’ Mayweather wanted to be an international boxing superstar like Mike was, you could see that.
“They both had stars in their eyes,” Brennan said. “They were obviously, totally smitten lovebirds and I think my photo expresses their deep affection for each other. But I guess the course of love does not always run smooth.”
Long based in Manhattan, Brennan now lives in Costa Rica with his wife.
Brennan reminds me that he has camera, will travel.
He can be reached at [email protected].
